experiment | alan frost photography

Experimenting with Colour Grading in Capture One Pro

Finding your creative voice through experimentation.

I have written before on this site that I have struggled with my photography in recent times. I have lacked a true sense of direction and the creative juices haven’t really been flowing. I haven’t been able to settle on one approach. Frustating yes, but at times like these I believe it’s important to consider all options, to be patient and not to restrict your choice of subject or technique. To experiment and just see what happens in the hope that given time a new creative voice will evolve.

More ‘Still Life’ – further experimentation for the fun of it!

A few days ago I experimented for the first time with still life photography. (You can read that post here). I have to say rather enjoyed it. Sometimes I think you need to break free from the norm, try something new and endeavour to be a little creative in the process. It can be very refreshing to photograph subjects in a different way and to make images which challenge how you think and approach a new technique .

With more time on my hands this afternoon I gathered together a few items of glassware from around the home and raided the fruit bowl and the fridge. I used a very simple set up. A black cloth was served as a background and a base. In addition to the natural light in the room I used a desk lamp to provide some directional light, plus a small head torch to cast light on a particular area of the subject. I used a 90mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera mounted on a tripod for stability.

After a certain amount of trial and error here are the results.

All in all a very pleasant and satisfying way to spend an afternoon. Still life photography may not be to everyone’s taste but I particularly enjoyed the complete control I had over composition, lighting and final processing. Without question I shall experiment further. I would like to try different backgrounds, reflectors and mirrors to change how things are lit. Choose other items to photograph and consider options for their placement in the frame. I may possibly acquire some interesting objects from charity shops or boot sales etc. The permutations are endless. Long term projects continue but photography should be fun and having experimented with ‘still life’ I do feel that my creative juices are flowing once again.

Do click on any of the images to view a larger version which will open in anew window.

Just having fun – processing an iPhone image of Dell Quay

Having ‘processing’ fun at Dell Quay

It’s very rare that I post anything other than black and white images on this blog. However sometimes it’s fun to play with a photograph, particularly if it’s one captured on a smartphone – in this case an iPhone5. Using a combination of Lightroom and Colour Efex, I made this rather moody, almost painterly picture of light falling on the sailing boats at Dell Quay in Chichester Harbour. Nothing is really sharp and the soft, desaturated appearance have worked together to produce a rather interesting and to my eyes at least, a pleasing result. It makes me think I should take more colour images and be a little more experimental with my work, but monochrome is still my first love. Nevertheless from time to time it’s good to play and just see what happens.

Do click on the image to view a larger version.